‘Dangerous’ George School looks to defend Friends Schools League boys’ basketball title

It’s still hard to believe how far the George School boys’ basketball team has come in a short period of time.

The Quaker boarding and day school hired former Penn State guard Ben Luber to run its boys’ basketball team in 2019. He brought in forward Kachi Nzeh and guards Christian Bliss and Dante Weise in 2021. That trio changed the course of the program.

Last season, they captured a Friends School League championship for the first time in program history. Now a new leaf is turning under Luber’s guidance, but it’s by no means a rebuilding project — the Cougars are once again one of the front-runners for the Friends Schools League title.

“It’s a young group, they’re very coachable, they have different talents than our previous groups,” Luber said. “But that’s the good challenge as a coach: You find a group of new guys and try to get them to play together by December and championship basketball by February.”

Bliss (Virginia), Nzeh (Xavier), and Weise (Division II St. Rose) graduated. And now things open up for the next big-time George School guard to take over the offense.

Freshman Tyler Sutton is one of the young dynamos who is quickly becoming a name to know in the area. Before he has even played a high school game, the 6-foot-1 combo guard has picked up scholarship offers from Iowa, Miami, Penn State, St. John’s, West Virginia, and more.

“I don’t care how old he is, he’s a dynamic player that can make a variety of plays for himself and others, which comes with a lot of responsibility, too, at the end of the games,” Luber said. “He’s super-talented and I’m going to stick with him from the day he gets here until the day he leaves here.”

Sutton isn’t the only star on the Cougars roster that will have college coaches flocking to the Bucks County school.

Junior forward Luke Bevilacqua, the only returning starter, is a mobile 6-11 forward with high-major offers of his own. The South Jersey native played at St. Augustine Prep and then Neumann-Goretti before settling at George School last season.

“I want to be the most efficient that I can possibly be,” Bevilacqua said. “Better shots, better passes, how can I involve my teammates, how can I compete on both ends, defensively and offensively. When I step on the court, I want people to be like, ‘Damn, I’ve got to play him?’”

This year he’s the only experienced post player on the squad. Freshman forward Ziyi Xiong, a recent arrival from China, is a 6-11 forward with a great upside, but he needs time to adjust.

Several other familiar faces will return this season as more significant parts of the rotation. Senior guard Ivan Ryabov (6-2) has been prominent this offseason, as has 6-4 junior Luke Melniczak. Sophomore guard Max Kipper should also be in the push for more minutes, as should junior Fallou Diouf and sophomore Emir Deldag.

George School went down to the wire against Perkiomen School in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship game, losing by 79-77 last season. It was a tough ending in what had been a back-and-forth game between two programs that had never been atop the state before. It’s one that has stuck with the Cougars all summer.

“I think about it a lot,” Bevilacqua said. “That’s kind of the fire that’s been lit and that’s where we want to be at the end of the season, and this time pull it through. That’s the goal every year, to level up every year, and that’s what we’re building toward.”

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With his top nine seemingly set, Luber has a couple of months to get them ready for the start of the season, which will see George School play the likes of Perkiomen School, St. Joseph’s Prep, Hun School (N.J.), and Blair Academy (N.J.) among other teams before league play starts in January.

“I’m going to try to coach these kids up to get the most out of them,” Luber said, “become great teammates, and I think this team will be very dangerous in a couple months.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.